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One of the first things this council did four years ago was to authorize senior city managers to mislead the public about the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of a former employee, a Sudbury Star investigation reveals.

Documents obtained by The Star show the new council asked senior managers to investigate another senior manager in 2007, spend $350,000 to terminate that manager and then tell city staff, the media and, eventually, the public, he left voluntarily.

The documents explain the mysterious "resignation" of Alan Stephen -- then general man-ager of infrastructure and emer-gency services, the city's largest department -- and perhaps points to the origins of the dis-trust engendered by this coun-cil, revealed in a 2009 Oraclepoll survey of city staff released ear-lier this week.

The documents show Stephen was terminated by the city over concerns about his competence. But he was offered a favourable payout to sign a letter of resigna-tion provided to him by the city so his exit would be "quick and clean," according to minutes of an in-camera meeting.

What actually happened to Stephen has long been the sub-ject of conjecture at Tom Davies Square.

The newly elected council met in-camera Dec. 13, 2006, with then city CAO Mark Mieto and director of human resources, Pat Thomson, to dis-cuss the job performance of Stephen, who had been pro-moted to the position from emergency services in a man-agement shuffle in December 2004.

Presented to councillors was a list of concerns about Stephen's abilities. The list alleged that:

* * His budget cost estimates were frequently inaccurate. For example, in 2005, council approved a winter control budget increase of $3.6 million, but it came in at $5.1 million. Even then, the new system was assailed by residents as inade-quate over the course of that winter.

* * Stephen locked the city into uncompetitive 10-year con-tracts with recycling contrac-tors, which would cost the city up to $1.2 million annually more than budgeted.

* * Stephen took a leadership role in the fire department's handling of the August 2006 ammonia leak at Northern Breweries, although he wasn't qualified to do so, according the minutes of the in-camera meet-ing. This led to a Ministry of Labour investigation into whether firefighters' lives were put at risk.

* * In the minutes, it was alleged that Stephen hired and promoted friends within his department, often people with no experience and without competitive processes.

There were other issues, too, according to the documents. Stephen, though not a trained firefighter, demanded he be issued firefighting "bunker gear," which he occasionally wore.

Atthe Dec. 13 meeting, councillors were given three options: Keep Stephen, but imbed financial watchdogs in his department; demote him back to emergency services; or authorize staff to negotiate an early ending of his employ-ment contract with the city, which was due to expire in 2009.

Councillors chose option three, but instructed staff to negotiate a lower payout than the 24 months salary stipu-lated in his contract.

On Monday, Jan. 7, 2007, Mieto sent Stephen a termina-tion notice, effective that day. It offered Stephen two years pay ($324,000), plus a $20,000 payout and other costs. It also included a draft letter of resig-nation, which Stephen was to sign and return to the city by Jan. 10.

Also on Jan. 7, Mieto couri-ered the details of Stephen's termination to Mayor John Rodriguez and all councillors. In it, he explained outside legal counsel recommended the coerced resignation strat-egy and cautioned against launching an investigation into Stephen's past.

Mieto also explained the importance of councillors and senior managers representing the "event as a resignation" or risk breaching its agreement with Stephen.

Thomson went as far as to provide councillors and senior managers with a "Communi-cations Box," or talking points for talking to staff and the media.

Stephen signed the letter of resignation and, on Jan. 10, said goodbye to staff on the fourth floor of Tom Davies Square.

Mieto also signed a letter of reference for Stephen and agreed to provide further "positive" references for him for prospective employers.

Later on Jan. 10, at the regu-larly scheduled priorities committee meeting -- at which Floyd Laughren pre-sented his Constellation City report advocating inclusive-ness, accountability and trans-parency at city hall -- Stephen's "resignation" was announced.

"Obviously, it catches you by surprise when someone in his position leaves," Mieto told the media that night.

"Alan has been one of our leading general managers ... I'm sorry to see him go. We wish him well in all of his future endeavours, because he's a real significant leader here, a dynamic and moti-vated individual."

In a Jan. 10 e-mail to Mieto, Thomson said Stephen agreed to return all city property in his possession and "his out-look appears positive ... he appears to want to work with us through this transition, to our mutual benefit."

Stephen asked if he could keep his fire helmet and com-puter, Thomson wrote.

"I'm recommending we let him keep the helmet."

Calls to Stephen and Mieto were not returned. E-mails asking for response sent to Mayor John Rodriguez and all city councillors were not returned.

CAO Doug Nadorozny did respond, asking for more time in order to contact Stephen.